Just when I thought I had the old BSM sort of sorted ,the Dipping and Rising in the cut is back with vengeance.
Last week while the boss was placing a big log on the mill with the truck crane (HIAB) when the log bumped the mill rail frame and one end of the rails came off the concrete base. I was really pleased it was not me that did it as I would not have heard the end of it.
Anyway major exercise in fixing it as the mill had to be lifted off the the rails.
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Rails lifted back onto concrete pad and re-levelled - this can take an hour or so but it only took about 15 minutes this time.
At this point two of of the wheels on the mill that run on the rails were found to be sloppy and we thought it might have been the bearings but it turned out they had 12mm diameter bolts through the 1/2" (12.54mm) bearing bores. So of to a bolt supplier to replace the bolts. But the new bolts wouldn't fit through the old bushes either side of the bearing so go home to bore these out on the lathe.
Then check all the mill geometry and back to Dipping and Rising. Tried out all the usual things, new blade, higher tension, more water, moved the gullets closer to the tyres, etc.
The boss is under pressure to get his lumber contract completed so I suggested we consider breaking up the big logs (there are not that many) with a chainsaw mill so they can fit on the smaller BSM. Given the amount of time we have spent messing around with the old BSM we would have done this by now
It's been really hot here, 4 consecutive days where its been over 105F and one day it reached 110F with a couple of days either side of 100F. I take medication that increases my possibility of getting heat stroke so I have been starting at around 7am and finishing up around noon (I am supposed to be retired!) and the going home and sitting/sleeping in air-conditioning.
As I was wrapping things up for the day I saw the boss dragging out his 880 with the 48" bar. Then he realised he did not have a chain so he was off to get one. I've offered use of one of my CSM (which are all at home) but he says he needs to get his sorted anyway as he has a log that is too big even for the big BSM to handle and wants to be independent of my gear.